You’re right about that, but cost is a funny thing. The x–ray photograph itself costs mere pennies, especially with a modern digital imaging system. Even x–ray film is just an incidental cost.
However, when you are getting an x–ray to diagnose a medical problem, you do want more than just the image itself. You want the person who takes the x–ray image to be practiced and able to reliably take the correct image with the correct camera settings and so on. But most importantly, you want the diagnosis to come from a highly educated doctor who knows what your insides are actually supposed to look like. Whether these two roles are handled by one person or multiple, you are monopolizing someone’s time. You can’t really expect them to take x–rays of multiple patients at the same time, or to look at two x–rays and diagnose them both simultaneously.
If it takes the imaging tech 10 minutes to set up the x–ray machine for you and make the images the doctor asked for, then you have to pay 10 minutes of that tech’s salary. If the doctor spends 20 minutes asking you questions about your injury and then 10 more minutes looking at the images and telling you that you will live, then you’re going to have to pay for half an hour of their salary. The staff at the front desk who hand out forms and answer phones get a slice. The nurses who do most of the grunt work get a cut too.
The shoe salesmen didn’t directly charge for use of the x–ray fitting machines, but they did recoup their costs out of the shoe sales. Either by increasing the price of every pair of shoes by a small amount, or just by selling additional shoes (due to the novelty factor, or because it genuinely saved time allowing them to sell more shoes in a day).
The bulk of the price of any good or service comes from paying the people.
> The shoe salesmen didn’t directly charge for use of the x–ray fitting machines, but they did recoup their costs out of the shoe sales. Either by increasing the price of every pair of shoes by a small amount, or just by selling additional shoes (due to the novelty factor, or because it genuinely saved time allowing them to sell more shoes in a day).
Well sure, that's why they were saying the price should be capped at a pair of shoes, not literally free.
And while a few minutes of a doctor's time costs more than a salesman, the entire materials costs of the shoes goes away. It seems like a reasonable benchmark.
However, when you are getting an x–ray to diagnose a medical problem, you do want more than just the image itself. You want the person who takes the x–ray image to be practiced and able to reliably take the correct image with the correct camera settings and so on. But most importantly, you want the diagnosis to come from a highly educated doctor who knows what your insides are actually supposed to look like. Whether these two roles are handled by one person or multiple, you are monopolizing someone’s time. You can’t really expect them to take x–rays of multiple patients at the same time, or to look at two x–rays and diagnose them both simultaneously.
If it takes the imaging tech 10 minutes to set up the x–ray machine for you and make the images the doctor asked for, then you have to pay 10 minutes of that tech’s salary. If the doctor spends 20 minutes asking you questions about your injury and then 10 more minutes looking at the images and telling you that you will live, then you’re going to have to pay for half an hour of their salary. The staff at the front desk who hand out forms and answer phones get a slice. The nurses who do most of the grunt work get a cut too.
The shoe salesmen didn’t directly charge for use of the x–ray fitting machines, but they did recoup their costs out of the shoe sales. Either by increasing the price of every pair of shoes by a small amount, or just by selling additional shoes (due to the novelty factor, or because it genuinely saved time allowing them to sell more shoes in a day).
The bulk of the price of any good or service comes from paying the people.